SL Army, Archaeology dept appropriate lands of uprooted Tamils in Maathakal

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 September 2010, 07:46 GMT]
Sri Lanka government’s archaeological department with the help of Sri Lanka Army is constructing more structures in Thirvadinilai in Maathakal in Vallikaamam North SLA High Security Zone (HSZ), in addition to a Buddhist temple erected in October 2009. This area had been the home of Tamil families living there since ancient times evicted twenty years ago when Valikaamam North HSZ was established by SLA. Now the families are not allowed even to see their own places in Maathakal while thousands of Sinhala Buddhist pilgrims visit the newly built temple daily which now has become a 'tourist attraction' in Jaffna peninsula, sources in Jaffna said.
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SLA Commander declines to comment on Jaffna GA’s announcement

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 07 September 2010, 05:30 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Commander Major Gen. Mahinda Kathurusinghe declined to endorse Jaffna Government Ms. Imelda Sukumar’s announcement that uprooted families from Valikaamam North SLA High Security Zone (HSZ) will be soon allowed resettlement in a recent meeting at Jaffna Veerasingham Hall, representatives of welfare organizations for uprooted families from Valikaamam North said. The GA is acting as if she is the spokesperson of Sri Lanka Defence Ministry, they accused. SLA Jaffna continues to deny permission for resettlement as Defence Secretary Gothabaya Rajapaksa is unyielding in his decision not to permit resettlement in Valikaamam North HSZ, they said.
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SLA closes Achchuveali-Tho'ndaimaanaa'ru road again

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 31 August 2010, 05:32 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) occupying Jaffna Friday closed Achchuveali-Tho'ndaimaanaa'ru road located at the outskirt of SLA High Security Zone (HSZ) in Valikaamam North for public use causing people to travel long distance spending more time to reach their destinations, sources in Jaffna said. The said road which had been closed fifteen years ago by SLA had been recently opened for public use with the beginning of the annual festivals of Chellach Channithi Murukan temple located on the shores of Tho'ndaimaanaa'ru lagoon.
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SLA refuses to open key roads in Jaffna peninsula

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 17 August 2010, 05:22 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) occupying Jaffna peninsula continues to refuse to open the key roads which it had closed for public use despite repeated requests by governemnt departments, NGOs and public organizations, sources in Jaffna said. The same situation prevails in allowing uprooted families to settle in their properties appropriated by SLA as High Security Zone (HSZ) in Valikaamam North. It is alleged that the conflict of interests in these two matters between Northern Province Governor, Major. Gen. G. A. Chandarasiri and SLA Jaffna Commander, Major. Gen. Mahinda Kathurusinghe is the cause of the issues.
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SLA extends HSZ in Ki'linochchi encroaching traditional Tamil villages

[TamilNet, Monday, 16 August 2010, 17:28 GMT]
Sri Lanka government has instructed the Government Agents of Ki'linochchi and Mullaiththeevu districts not to resettle anyone in an area of 200 acres in the adjoining traditional Tamil villages of the already declared area as the High Security Zone (HSZ) of occupying Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in an extent of 300 acres in Ira'naimadu in Vanni, Ki'linochchi Government Secretariat sources said. The 500 acres of land encroached by SLA are to be used to colonize it with Sinhala families of SLA personnel from South and other Sinhala families, depriving the Tamil residents of the area from cultivating their paddy fields irrigated by Ira'naimadu reservoir, sources in Vanni said.
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Youth abducted in Valikaamam escapes

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 August 2010, 04:35 GMT]
Two unidentified men stopped a youth on motorcycle Tuesday night in Thellippazhai, located next to the High Security Zone (HSZ) of occupying Sri Lanka Army (SLA) in Valikaamam North and abducted him on his motorcycle. The youth managed to escape the abductors and sought protection at Thellippazhai police station, sources in Thellippazhai said. The men could not have abducted the youth without the knowledge of the SLA soldiers present in the place, the sources said.
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Devotees not permitted to stay overnight to continue rituals in Keerimalai temple

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 August 2010, 06:28 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) occupying Jaffna peninsula did not allow thousands of Hindu devotees Monday night to continue the religious rituals to their ancestors in the historically famous Keerimalai Nakuleasvaram temple located in the SLA High Security Zone (HSZ) in Valikaamam North, sources in Jaffna said. The residents of this area, evacuated 20 years ago by SLA have not been permitted to resettle in their own properties which are under SLA occupation. Earlier in April, SLA had put up notices that no one should pollute the temple pond and the seas around as the area has been declared as a tourist spot. This infringement on religious rights had angered the devotees who gather to perform rites which had been observed by Hindus through ages.
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SLA claims Kurunakar HSZ removed

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 August 2010, 23:46 GMT]
Acting Military spokesman, Colonel Duminda Gamage, talking to the Colombo media Tuesday, claimed that the High Security Zone (HSZ) in the Kurunakar area in Jaffna has been removed. He further said that this step has been taken to facilitate the resettlement of civilian, and added HSZ is gradually being dismantled since Monday and civilians are being allowed to reoccupy their former dwellings.
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Valikaamam uprooted families abandon protest demonstration due to death threats

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 August 2010, 07:21 GMT]
Welfare organizations of Valikaamam North residents expelled by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) from their properties twenty years ago cancelled a human chain protest demanding resettlement in their places due to death threats to the key persons of the organizations, sources in Jaffna said. The persons threatened wish anonymity as they fear for their lives. Meanwhile, conflicts between the SLA Jaffna Commander, Major Gen. Mahinda Kathurusinghe and Sri Lanka Minister Douglas Devanda on the issue of resettlement in the outskirts of SLA High Security Zone (HSZ) in Valikaamam are causes for the delay in resettlement, the sources further said.
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SL government suspends WPF relief measures to resettled people in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 July 2010, 06:10 GMT]
Sri Lanka government has suspended the dry food relief supplied under World Food Programme to the recently resettled people in the outskirts of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) High Security Zone (HSZ) in Vazhalaay near Achchuveali, according to Divisional Secretariat officials who had suspended the supply of dry food rations on instructions from Sri Lanka government authorities.
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Cabinet meeting in Ki'linochchi aims to deceive Sinhala people: UNP MP

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 July 2010, 18:17 GMT]
“All should understand that the Sinhala people also have to bear the burden of foreign loans Sri Lanka has to borrow to develop the North which was destructed by Tigers,” Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa claimed in a public meeting in Ki’linochchi Wednesday after having held the Cabinet Meeting in Ira’naimadu Sri Lanka Army (SLA) head quarters in Vanni. Nearly a hundred people brought by SLA participated in the meeting held under tight security. “There is no minority in the country but all are majority in the sense that all are Sri Lankans,” Mahinda Rajapaksa further claimed. Meanwhile, Jayalath Jeyawardene, an opposition United National Party (UNP) parliamentarian said in a statement to media in Colombo Wednesday that Mahinda Rajapaksa’s cabinet meeting in Ki’linochchi was a political drama to deceive the Sinhalese in the South, condemning the Ki’linochchi cabinet meeting.
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Champoor uprooted Tamil villagers demand early resettlement

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 July 2010, 16:31 GMT]
The Champoor Division Uprooted Tamil Villagers’ Association has decided to request relevant authorities to allow them to cultivate during the forthcoming Maha season about three thousand acres of paddy fields belonging to them located in the High Security Zone (HSZ). Sri Lanka Army (SLA) demarcated large areas as HSZ after the SLA captured Champoor and adjacent villages of Koonitheivu and Soodaikudha in the military operation in April 2006. The Association took this decision at the general meeting held recently.
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Fisherman drowns to death while fishing in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 09 July 2010, 06:27 GMT]
A twenty-one year old fisherman from Kurunakar in Jaffna drowned to death Thursday while fishing in Jaffna lagoon, sources in Jaffna said. Meanwhile, fishermen living in the coastal villages between Kaangkeasanthu’rai and Kaarainakar complain that Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) continues imposing the ‘pass’ system restricting fishing in their seas and of harassment by SLN soldiers while they are engaged in fishing.
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Illegal excavation of limestone threatens ecology of Jaffna

[TamilNet, Monday, 21 June 2010, 04:05 GMT]
Threatening the entire groundwater and fragile ecology of Jaffna peninsula, a private Sinhalese company is engaged in the illegal excavation of limestone in the High Security Zone (HSZ) in Valikaamam North while Rajapaksa government refuses to reveal details of this enterprise in the area from Maaviddapuram to Keerimalai where the uprooted residents have not been allowed to resettle for the past twenty years. The indiscriminate excavation of limestone in a 4 sq km area at depths of nearly 40 feet has already caused seepage of sea water and it is feared the area becoming submerged. The underground channels that bring in freshwater to the innumerable aquifers of the peninsula, have an underneath entry into sea adjacent to the locality of the quarries. It is obvious how indiscriminate quarrying and the possibility of seawater coming inside can affect the potable water of the masses.
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Swiss ambassador to Sri Lanka visits Jaffna, German ambassador's visit cancelled

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 June 2010, 18:39 GMT]
Ms. Ruth Flint, Switzerland ambassador to Sri Lanka arrived in Jaffna Monday where she met Jaffna Government Agent (GA) K. Ganesh in Jaffna Secretariat and discussed development projects carried out by Swiss Development Corporation (SDC) in Jaffna peninsula. Incidentally, TamilNet had reported Friday the construction of a school by CDC in Maravanpulavu in Jaffna district at a cost of 18 million rupees where people have not resettled due to insecurity. Meanwhile, the German ambassador to Sri Lanka who was to participate in a cultural program Monday organized by German Cultural Society in Jaffna had cancelled the visit without any official information for the last minute cancellation of the visit, sources in Jaffna said.
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China, India, USA work to increase influence in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Friday, 11 June 2010, 14:17 GMT]
China, India and the United States of America are gradually strengthening their presence in Jaffna. India and China have openly sought to influence the 'post-war development’, which is unilaterally undertaken under the supervision of Basil Rajapaksa, the brother of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Tamil circles in Jaffna commenting on the corporate race by the powers said articulate sections of Tamils in Tamil Nadu and in the diaspora should come out with appropriate responses that the powers should respect the rights of the people of the land in deciding their own development.
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Defence Ministry objects to resettlement in Wards 3, 5 in Allaippiddi

[TamilNet, Thursday, 10 June 2010, 18:06 GMT]
The civilians of Wards 3 and 5 in Allaippiddi in the islets of Jaffna who were uprooted in August 2006 when clashes erupted between Liberation Tigers and Sri Lanka Army (SLA) had sought refuge in Jaffna town. Thursday, for the second time, they were permitted to see their houses and properties occupied by Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) claiming the area as High Security Zone (HSZ) and the SLN officials there had informed them that resettlement in the said HSZ is not immediately possible, sources in Jaffna said. The officials had told them that Sri Lanka Ministry of Defence objects to resettlement in their lands.
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Big explosions heard in the outskirts of Palaali east HSZ

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 June 2010, 15:51 GMT]
Residents in Jaffna peninsula were shocked by the deafening explosions heard Monday evening intermittently for nearly an hour from the outskirts of Sri Lanka Army (SLA) High Security Zone (HSZ) in Palaali, sources in Jaffna said. An official of a de-mining organization said that the explosion could not be due to the destroying of landmines as it was generally rumoured because SLA has not permitted any de-mining in or near its HSZ in Palaali in Valikaamam.
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SLA permits conditional worship in St. Mary’s Church in Valikaamam North HSZ

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 June 2010, 04:58 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) authorities in Palaali Military Head Quarters Sunday handed over Oddakappulam St. Mary’s Church located within Valikaamam SLA High Security Zone (HSZ) to the parish priests of the church to conduct services. The permission is given on condition that the devotees should go through the SLA check post to the church in the morning and return in the evening while no one will be allowed to live permanently in the area. There were more SLA officers in the Sunday event held in the said church than civilians, one of the Catholic priests participant said.
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Limestone in Valikaamam HSZ sent to Galle in South

[TamilNet, Thursday, 27 May 2010, 16:58 GMT]
Thousands of Southern Sinhalese labourers are engaged in excavating lime stone in the Sri Lanka Amy (SLA) High Security Zone (HSZ) in Valikaamam North where its residents had been evicted by SLA, Jaffna MP, Appathurai Vinayagamoorthy accused in a press meet held in Jaffna Thursday. The excavated limestone is taken to the cement factories in Galle in ships and via A9 road, he further said. Government which does not permit the evicted residents of Valikaamam North to resettle in their own places has freely allowed thousands of Sinhalese labourers to work within the HSZ.
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